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Saturday, 1 July 2017

TODAY'S CYBERSECURITY APPROACHES - A THREAT FOR SOCIETY?

After the recent cyber attacks such as the one with WannaCry, some people speak of a Pearl Harbor of Cyber Security and call for new cyber defence tools. The goal seems to be the operation of a centralized war room for global cyber defence. However, today's most advanced methods to increase cyber security are often in conflict with privacy and data sparsity. They have the potential to damage freedom and democracy, at least in dual use scenarios, which are likely to occur. Therefore, it is time to remember a quote from Benjamin Franklin, who said:

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

Benjamin Franklin

Note that, even with brute force, modern cyber security approaches cannot keep up with the exponentially or even super-exponentially increasing threats. The recent WannaCry and other attacks have demonstrated this again and again. Also note that I was told by an insider of Big Data and AI-based solutions, superintelligent computer systems would solve many world problems by 2036, but not climate change and cyber security. To put it differently: the collection and processing of personal data for cyber security applications does not solve our cyber security problems, but creates new, possibly even bigger threats. It makes no sense to protect computers in a way that may threaten our state or society altogether. One should also know that, in nature, the defence against health attacks work differently, namely in a decentralized way. Our immune system is the best example for this. Therefore, what has been the best solution to secure survival should also guide the cyber security solutions of the future. Decentral and heterogeneous systems are superior to centralized systems in terms of resilience, i.e. in their ability to cope with unexpected challenges and crises. They can also be designed in a way that is much better compatible with privacy and democracy. It's time for a paradigm change, and time for the right kind of action...!

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The activities leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 284709 - project 'FuturICT', a Coordination and Support Action in the Information and Communication Technologies activity area